"Are you coming or not?" It wasn’t until a few minutes had passed that Cang Yue’s voice brought Yang Ze back to his senses. Gritting his teeth, he averted his gaze from the two skinless won whose bodies were slowly turning still. By now, their bodies were already covered with a mixture of blood, dust and small rocks, giving them an eerie appearance.
The fact that their eyes were almost bulging out without any eyelids and were now punctured by small pebbles didn’t make it any easier for Yang Ze.
He quietly clenched his fists in anger before following the figure of Cang Yue, who was walking quietly with her back turned on him.
"What? You didn’t like it?" Cang Yue’s voice echoed in his ears once again with a hint of playfulness.
Cang Yue was one of the most beautiful won that Yang Ze had ever seen, and her soft, distinct voice was sothing that he loved to hear. But today... Today, this soft voice was akin to pouring molten tal in his ears. The more he heard her... the more he saw her act this way... the more he hated himself and this world.
He hated his indecisiveness; he hated his inability to co up with an effective solution. Though it was Cang Yue who skinned those two won, he felt like he did it all by himself.
"Co on, still brooding over it?" As he quietly followed Cang Yue, he heard her discontented voice once again.
"You should get used to it. In the future, there are bound to be more people who wish death upon you, and there are bound to be people who will die from your hands."
"The sooner you co to terms with it, the better it is for both of us."
"....." Yang Ze quietly listened to her without uttering a single word. He was still lost in his train of thought when Cang Yue’s voice once again sounded in his ears.
"Say sothing..."
This ti, Yang Ze let out a mouthful of turbid air before asking in a soft voice.
"Was it really necessary to torture them like this? And to leave them in such agonising pain?"
"Even if you wanted to kill them, why not just give them a swift death?"
"Huh!?" Cang Yue’s surprised voice ca before she let out a cold snort. "Then why don’t you tell what I should have done with them?"
"...." Yang Ze didn’t imdiately answer her but thought for a mont before answering in a calm voice.
"The two of them had clearly lost their ability to fight. We could have simply left them there. There was no need to go to such extre lengths."
"And in case you have forgotten, I am wearing a skin mask, and you are wearing a veil. So, those two didn’t even know how we look."
"Left them there?" Cang Yue’s voice, which was filled with mockery, sounded in his ears once again.
"And let them go and alert their tribe?"
"Then, why not just tie them up?" Yang Ze refuted her in the next instant.
"...." This ti, it was Cang Yue who paused for a good while before speaking in an exhausted tone.
"Do you know the type of people we are dealing with?"
"These are the kind of people who skin n’s faces and soak them in a blue liquid before using them as decorations. The very requirent to join this tribe is to skin one of their male family mber."
"Now tell ..." Her voice turned increasingly cold. "Do you think they deserve to live?"
"You don’t have to repeat this story again and again. You have already told during our travels, no need to repeat it once more."
"As for your question..."
"I believe it is not up to or you to decide whether they should live or die."
"If we are just talking about killing people and skinning them, then I believe you are even worse than them."
"So tell ..."
His eyes turned incomparably calm as he uttered his next sentence.
"Do you think you deserve to die?"
"...."
"...."
"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA"
Cang Yue’s wild laughter filled the forest as if she had heard one of the funniest jokes.
Yang Ze, on the other hand, just stood in silence. He had been following her for almost fifteen minutes now, and yet they weren’t back to their initial position.
"In this world, only strength determines fate."
"Whether they live or whether they die... it is decided by whose strength is greater."
"Because I was stronger, their fate is for to decide."
"And I decided to give them what they deserved."
Yang Ze just shook his head with a bitter smile. At the mont, he was extrely conflicted in his heart. On one hand, he didn’t want to kill those two won, but instead leave them be or in extre cases, hand them over to the Sword Sect. And on the other hand, he could understand Cang Yue’s reasoning.
He understood that for the two of them, who were raised in two different worlds, the aning of empathy, rcy and justice was completely different from what he knew.
In a sense, it wasn’t he who was fighting Cang Yue, but it was Earth’s moral dilemma clashing with the Cultivation world. It was a battle between what he had known and learned since childhood and what he was being taught in this new world.
After that, neither of the two spoke a word as they quietly continued their journey, which didn’t seem to have an end.
---------
On the other side, Lin Yue and Xiao Ruolan were properly arranging the items that they might need. The first thing they took out was thin armour that they draped over their bodies. Even though they were in the Vein Expansion realm, they could still get hurt by soone using Internal energy.
If they were careless, even soone at the peak of Pulse Opening who could imbue weapons with internal energy could injure or even kill them.
Though these sets of armour looked thin and unremarkable, they were extrely efficient against weaker internal energy attacks.
Anyone who is not at the peak of Foundation Forging can not even break through its defence, much less injure it.
The next thing they took out was a bunch of antidotes against possible poison attacks.
And just when they were about to take out their next ti, they heard the rustling of leaves as the two of them imdiately jumped in alarm. While Lin Yue’s eyes were solemn as she looked in the direction of the sound, Xiao Ruolan just averted her gaze after one look. She already knew the identity of the newcor.
"What are you doing?" It was at this mont that Cang Yue’s dissatisfied voice ca as she pushed the bushes aside before standing in front of Lin Yue, who was standing there with the black ribbon, ready to strike.
"It’s you." Lin Yue just let out a cold snort before putting back her black ribbon and muttering in a dissatisfied voice.
"Will it kill you to just announce your arrival firsthand?"
"..." Cang Yue didn’t retort but quietly put on her set of armour.
And it was at this mont that Xiao Ruolan’s confused voice echoed.
"Where is Yang Ze?" She sensed the presence of Cang Yue, but not Yang Ze. She kept on looking around in confusion before Cang Yue answered her question with so irritation.
"He is still there. Learning what I just taught him."
"Oh!" Xiao Ruolan couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. "And what did you teach him?"
"....." Cang Yue stopped midway through putting on the armour before replying in a flat tone.
"Reality."
The scene plunged into silence for a while before Cang Yue slowly began to recount the events of Yang Ze’s fight with the two mbers of the Blue Faced tribe.
At first, both Xiao Ruolan and Lin Yue didn’t think too much, but the more they listened, the more they felt sothing was amiss.
And by the ti Cang Yue finished speaking, both won had different expressions on their faces.
"Heh! Even with such a face, he is still a coward." Lin Yue sneered while shaking her head. Though it wasn’t clear if she was taking pleasure in Yang Ze’s suffering or mocking him for not killing the two won.
Xiao Ruolan, on the other hand, was rather calm with her eyes flashing occasionally. It wasn’t until a few monts had passed that she raised her head, looked at the two won in front of her, who were both dissatisfied by the way Yang Ze acted, before speaking in a soft voice.
"The two of you should appreciate him."
"Huh!?"
"EH!?"
Both Lin Yue and Cang Yue raised their heads simultaneously while looking towards Xiao Ruolan, wondering if she was right in the head.
Ignoring their exxegrated reaction, Xiao Ruolan looked into the distance before speaking further, but this ti her voice was incomparably soft.
"rcy, empathy, and forgiveness are hard to co by."
"Especially in the world of cultivation, where every other person wants to kill and rob you."
"People like him, who even after reaching such heights still manage to retain their sense of humanity, are rarer than Qilin horns and Phoenix feathers."
"Cherish him and try to keep him that way."
Xiao Ruolan’s words caused Lin Yue to roll her eyes, whereas Cang Yue just stood there in silence, thinking about what she had just said.
One minute passed..... three minutes passed..... ten minutes passed.....
Even after thirty minutes had passed, they didn’t see Yang Ze coming back.
"Did he get lost?" Xiao Ruolan threw a questioning gaze towards Cang Yue, wondering if she had done anything to him.
"He shouldn’t be." With a frown, Cang Yue just walked in the direction where she had skinned those two won, followed by Xiao Ruolan.
"Hmph!" Lin Yue just snorted in displeasure before deciding to follow them. Their preparations were now complete, and they were going to hit the Blue Faced tribe soon anyway.
In less than three minutes, the three won stood in the place where Yang Ze found against two mbers of the Blue Faced tribe.
Looking at the lifeless, skinless bodies of the won on the ground, Xiao Ruolan and Lin Yue didn’t pay any attention to them; instead, they looked around, searching for Yang Ze’s figure, but to no avail.
He wasn’t there.
"Where the hell is he?" Cang Yue couldn’t help but widen her eyes in disbelief.
"Did he run away?" The mont such an absurd thought ca to her mind, she shook it off. With their improved relationship, it was impossible for Yang Ze to run away in the middle of a mission that needed his help.
She raised her hand, intending to use the wristband to sense his location. But halfway through her action, her hand paused as she let out a sharp, cold breath.
Yang Ze wasn’t wearing the bracelet. She had personally taken it off him to put him at ease and improve their relationship further.
"Stupid." For a mont, Cang Yue wanted to slap herself for being this stupid as her intestines turned green with regret.
But alas! There was no dicine for regret.
"Find him." Leaving behind a single sentence, she followed traces of Yang Ze’s footsteps.
"....." Both Lin Yue and Xiao Ruolan looked at each other and, noticing the seriousness of the situation, rushed forward to search for him.
-----------
While the three won were searching for him, Yang Ze was quietly following the ’Cang Yue’ in front of him.
"Are we lost?" The two of them have been walking for almost a quarter of an hour now, and they still haven’t reached their destination. He couldn’t help but wonder if they were lost.
"....."
"Why aren’t you saying sothing?" Yang Ze frowned in displeasure before raising his head, looking at the figure of Cang Yue in front of him.
"You still haven’t realised it, have you?" The voice turned eerie as ’Cang Yue’ in front of him began to twist and deform.
"What the..." Before he even had ti to react, the scene around him began to change as the large trees and forest around him disappeared before turning into a familiar room with the figure of a mature woman standing there.
"Co, my dearest son... Let your mother hold you."
It was only now that Yang Ze realised what was going on. From the very start, he wasn’t following Cnag Yue, but instead his mother, or should he say, his hallucination.
The heated discussion he had with Cang Yue was actually his inner turmoil. On one side, he wanted to retain his humanity and morale, while on the other side, he wanted to agree with Cang Yue and kill everyone and everything in his path.
He could only watch helplessly as his ’mother’ arrived before him while taking off her clothes.
In desperation, Yang Ze could only close his eyes.
And it was at this mont that he seed to hear another voice in his ears that was full of confusion and excitent.
"EH!"
"A man in our territory... Tribe Leader is going to enjoy this little gift of mine."
And with this voice, Yang Ze felt sothing or soone hitting him on the back of his neck before everything turned dark as he lost consciousness....
User Comments
0 comments from readers